What: "The Majors," by John Feinstein (Little Brown and Co., $25) Because the professional golf season stretches from the week after New Year's Day to just before Christmas, it has grown increasingly difficult to tell one tournament from another, or which is more important--the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic or the Shell Houston Open. The answer, of course, is that nothing really matters as much as the major championships--the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA.

As the carefully constructed public image of Tiger Woods continued its excruciating free fall last week, one question perplexed those who think there should have been hints of trouble: How was it possible for Woods, among the world's most scrutinized professional athletes, to keep his infidelity secret for so long? Just about everyone is at a loss: the golf writers who banter with Woods (when he allows it), golf fanatics who can tell you which way his golf ball's Nike logo was facing when Woods chipped it into the 16th hole in the final round of the 2005 Masters, paparazzi whose paid informants can sniff out a straying spouse a mile away.

April 4, 1993 | Dick Roraback, Roraback is a member of the Book Review Staff

I'm a Giant fan. Have been all my life. Which is more than somewhat. The Polo Grounds. Chinese home runs. Parking on the old Speedway for free (except for a quarter for the kid who offered to watch your car--"so you don't get your tires slashed." Nice kid.) There were fans then. You grew up with your team. They weren't going anywhere. Neither were you. King Carl Hubbell and Prince Hal Schumacher.

Keeping his usual eye out for the underdog, John Feinstein blazed a trail of sorts in late January when he listed George Mason as the No. 25 team in the country in his weekly ballot for the Associated Press basketball poll. Feinstein's vote meant the Patriots were listed with a lonely "1" in the Also Receiving Votes section at the very bottom of the poll, but the small piece of recognition was a groundbreaking source of pride for a mid-major program in the Colonial Athletic Association.

A consumer's guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, heard, observed, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it's in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed. What: "The Punch" by John Feinstein Price: $25.95 One would hope that it was not fate that brought Kermit Washington's fist together with Rudy Tomjanovich's face on Dec. 9, 1977, because not even fate should be that cruel.

HARD COURTS by John Feinstein (Villard Books: $22.50; 45 pp.). Feinstein, author of "A Season on the Brink," hits the road to observe the professional tennis tour in all of its big-business glory. And 1990 was the perfect year for such a study, since old-timers like Navratilova and McEnroe were trying to hang on, while kids like Jennifer Capriati, and some who would not be as fortunate, dreamed of breaking through.

January 5, 2003 | Elizabeth Kaye, Elizabeth Kaye is the author of "Ain't No Tomorrow: Kobe, Shaq, and the Making of a Lakers Dynasty."

The Punch One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever John Feinstein Little, Brown: 368 pp., $25.95 * On Dec. 9, 1977, Kermit Washington landed a punch on the face of Rudy Tomjanovich, a punch that divided both men's lives into what author John Feinstein simply and aptly terms Before and After. Before, Tomjanovich was a Houston Rocket on the rise, an NBA All-Star raised in the grinding poverty that can break a man or drive him.

The talk in the press boxes began about the time the NBA playoffs started. Celebrated writer Frank Deford, who had left Sports Illustrated after 27 years, was starting a national daily newspaper devoted entirely to sports. And with guaranteed three-year contracts and salaries apparently as high as $250,000, Deford was getting some of the biggest names in sportswriting to consider joining. Today, a month later, the paper they are calling "the National" is still mostly an idea with money behind it, and the idea is to mix the scope and statistics of USA Today's sports section with the style and intelligence of Sports Illustrated.

Keeping his usual eye out for the underdog, John Feinstein blazed a trail of sorts in late January when he listed George Mason as the No. 25 team in the country in his weekly ballot for the Associated Press basketball poll. Feinstein's vote meant the Patriots were listed with a lonely "1" in the Also Receiving Votes section at the very bottom of the poll, but the small piece of recognition was a groundbreaking source of pride for a mid-major program in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Television has seen original sports movies galore in recent years, from HBO's dark and funny "Don King: Only in America" to ABC's dim account of Billy Jean King versus Bobby Riggs, an absurd scenario that claimed her camera-tailored tennis win over this aging grifter somehow emboldened contemporary feminism. Coming in March is a Starz movie about the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling boxing rivalry that turned friendly and "A Season on the Brink," ESPN's version of John Feinstein's book about the 1985-86 Indiana University basketball team and its volcanic coach, Bobby Knight.

January 5, 2003 | Elizabeth Kaye, Elizabeth Kaye is the author of "Ain't No Tomorrow: Kobe, Shaq, and the Making of a Lakers Dynasty."

The Punch One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever John Feinstein Little, Brown: 368 pp., $25.95 * On Dec. 9, 1977, Kermit Washington landed a punch on the face of Rudy Tomjanovich, a punch that divided both men's lives into what author John Feinstein simply and aptly terms Before and After. Before, Tomjanovich was a Houston Rocket on the rise, an NBA All-Star raised in the grinding poverty that can break a man or drive him.

A consumer's guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, heard, observed, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it's in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed. What: "The Punch" by John Feinstein Price: $25.95 One would hope that it was not fate that brought Kermit Washington's fist together with Rudy Tomjanovich's face on Dec. 9, 1977, because not even fate should be that cruel.

Television has seen original sports movies galore in recent years, from HBO's dark and funny "Don King: Only in America" to ABC's dim account of Billy Jean King versus Bobby Riggs, an absurd scenario that claimed her camera-tailored tennis win over this aging grifter somehow emboldened contemporary feminism. Coming in March is a Starz movie about the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling boxing rivalry that turned friendly and "A Season on the Brink," ESPN's version of John Feinstein's book about the 1985-86 Indiana University basketball team and its volcanic coach, Bobby Knight.

What: "The Majors," by John Feinstein (Little Brown and Co., $25) Because the professional golf season stretches from the week after New Year's Day to just before Christmas, it has grown increasingly difficult to tell one tournament from another, or which is more important--the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic or the Shell Houston Open. The answer, of course, is that nothing really matters as much as the major championships--the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA.

April 4, 1993 | Dick Roraback, Roraback is a member of the Book Review Staff

I'm a Giant fan. Have been all my life. Which is more than somewhat. The Polo Grounds. Chinese home runs. Parking on the old Speedway for free (except for a quarter for the kid who offered to watch your car--"so you don't get your tires slashed." Nice kid.) There were fans then. You grew up with your team. They weren't going anywhere. Neither were you. King Carl Hubbell and Prince Hal Schumacher.

HARD COURTS by John Feinstein (Villard Books: $22.50; 45 pp.). Feinstein, author of "A Season on the Brink," hits the road to observe the professional tennis tour in all of its big-business glory. And 1990 was the perfect year for such a study, since old-timers like Navratilova and McEnroe were trying to hang on, while kids like Jennifer Capriati, and some who would not be as fortunate, dreamed of breaking through.

Steffi Graf wins the U.S. Open, becomes the third female to win tennis' Grand Slam, and before she can celebrate by taking in a Broadway play, an East Side restaurant or even a breath of the Manhattan night air, she is dragged aboard a plane back home to Germany by her father. Graf calls it "one of the worst days of my life."

As the carefully constructed public image of Tiger Woods continued its excruciating free fall last week, one question perplexed those who think there should have been hints of trouble: How was it possible for Woods, among the world's most scrutinized professional athletes, to keep his infidelity secret for so long? Just about everyone is at a loss: the golf writers who banter with Woods (when he allows it), golf fanatics who can tell you which way his golf ball's Nike logo was facing when Woods chipped it into the 16th hole in the final round of the 2005 Masters, paparazzi whose paid informants can sniff out a straying spouse a mile away.

Steffi Graf wins the U.S. Open, becomes the third female to win tennis' Grand Slam, and before she can celebrate by taking in a Broadway play, an East Side restaurant or even a breath of the Manhattan night air, she is dragged aboard a plane back home to Germany by her father. Graf calls it "one of the worst days of my life."

The talk in the press boxes began about the time the NBA playoffs started. Celebrated writer Frank Deford, who had left Sports Illustrated after 27 years, was starting a national daily newspaper devoted entirely to sports. And with guaranteed three-year contracts and salaries apparently as high as $250,000, Deford was getting some of the biggest names in sportswriting to consider joining. Today, a month later, the paper they are calling "the National" is still mostly an idea with money behind it, and the idea is to mix the scope and statistics of USA Today's sports section with the style and intelligence of Sports Illustrated.